Sadr threatens dithering Iraqi parliament with million person march

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Iraq’s influential Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr on Saturday threatened a million person march against Iraqi parliamentarians if they fail to approve a new cabinet in an emergency parliamentary session on Monday.

The leader’s statement follows a request by Prime Minister-designate Allawi last week in which he called on the Iraqi parliament to hold an emergency session to vote on the new governmental cabinet. 

“We look forward to the parliament session in which they will vote on the new Iraqi governmental cabinet, but if they fail to hold the session, or do not vote on the new cabinet, or the cabinet does not meet the demands of the nation or the Marjaiya [Shiite clerical leadership], we will hold a million person march and then turn it into a strike around Green Zone area in Baghdad to apply more pressure,” Sadr said in a tweet on Saturday.

Anti-government protesters have been in the streets for almost five months, demanding regime change, constitutional change, and a better quality of life in a country where poverty and corruption are widespread. 

Security forces have responded with deadly violence, including live rounds and military-grade tear gas. More than 600 protesters and security force members have been killed and at least 18,000 people injured since protests began in October, according to an Amnesty International report published in January.

Adil Abdul-Mahdi - now Iraq’s caretaker prime minister - resigned in December amid violence against protestors. After weeks of contention, Allawi was tasked on February 1 by President Barham Salih to form a new government. Protesters expressed discontent at his appointment, believing former communications minister Allawi to be part of the same establishment they were protesting against.

Sadr, who was in the northern Iran province of Qom during most of the course of protests, returned unannounced to the Iraqi province of Najaf on Saturday.

As head of the Saiyrun Alliance, the largest bloc in the Iraqi parliament, he threw his support behind Allawi’s premiership. 

As part of his cosign of Allawi’s future prime ministerial tenure, Sadr ordered his ‘blue hats’ militia to leave the protest epicenter of Tahrir Square on January 24. With protesters left near defenseless, Iraqi security forces and pro-government militias attacked protesters in Baghdad and other central and southern cities, burning their tents and abducting activists.

Allawi has until March 2 to form a government. Iraqi officials have quietly expressed skepticism that he will be able to complete the task on time.

Since the 2003 US-led invasion that toppled dictator Saddam Hussein, cabinets have been formed through a sectarian power-sharing system, leading to widespread horsetrading among various sects and parties. Iraq's Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish factions are likely to hold tightly to their shares of posts in the outgoing cabinet and aim to carry them over into the next lineup.

Sadr has previously sponsored mass mobilization to push forward his demands of the Iraqi political establishment. 

He called last month on his supporters to participate in a million person march on the streets of Baghdad to protest US troop presence in Iraq. Though it attracted far fewer people than intended, several hundred thousand people attended the January 24 march.